Roasted Game Hens with Caramelized Root Vegetables and Dried-Currant Sauce

Be sure to start marinating the game hens at least six hours ahead. At Standard Tap, Carolynn Angle uses poussins — small chickens that weigh about a pound each. If you can find them (they're sold frozen at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores), buy six and cook them whole.

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Preparation

For caramelized root vegetables:

Melt butter with oil in very large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 5 minutes. Add rutabagas and next 4 ingredients; sauté until vegetables are caramelized and tender, stirring often, about 30 minutes. Stir in chestnuts, garlic, and thyme; sauté 5 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Do aheadCan be made 1 day ahead. Cover and chill. Rewarm over medium heat, stirring frequently, until heated through before serving.

For hens:

Mix 1/4 cup thyme, shallots, oil, orange peel, garlic, and crushed juniper berries in small bowl for marinade. Rub marinade all over hens. Place hens in large roasting pan; cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325°F. Pour 1 1/2 cups broth into roasting pan with hens. Sprinkle hens with salt and pepper. Cover pan tightly with foil. Roast until hens are cooked through and juices run clear when thighs are pierced with fork, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Preheat broiler.

Pour pan juices from hens into small saucepan; add dried currants and remaining 1 tablespoon thyme. Boil until liquid is reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes (sauce will be thin). Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

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Recent Reviews

As others have said, the vegetables were great. For those whose dishes didn't get brown, work in batches and turning often is key so the carmilized onion and garlic coat the veggies. I used a 5 qt cast iron pot. Leftovers make a great addition for a fall soup with beans, spinach and turkey sausage.
I was unable to find chestnuts or junipers after I went to two specialty markets so I just made them like roasted chicken. Next time will just make chicken.

thearnest from yorba linda, ca /

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Fantastic flavors in this dish made it a Thanksgiving hit! The carmelized root vegetables had an amazing flavor, but I had to make some changes to the recipe because they didn't stay solid as I was carmelizing them. Perhaps because my pan was too small, they ended up steaming and breaking down, especially the turnips. This gave them a soft stuffing consistency. I used them to stuff the whole birds and finished the remainder under the broiler in the pan drippings from the hens. Perhaps if I had used a much larger pan, cooked them in batches and had a 1/2 to 2/3 inch dice, they may have stayed more solid.
With regard to the hens, the marinade was quite lovely. We could not find juniper berries anywhere, so I added 1-1/2 shots of gin to the marinade, along with the juice of one orange. Yum! After reading some of the other reviews, I decided to roast the hens on a rack whole uncovered at 375 for 55 minutes. They had a beautiful brown skin and very juicy.

mrkevin from Gurnee, IL /

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Made the entire meal with the
brussels sprouts and pearl onions in
horseradish cream also from this
site for christmas
dinner. It was great, though I
think the veggie to chicken ratio is
a bit off. All raved about all,
including my father-in-law who did
not realize he was eating turnips
and rutabaga (both of which he
hates). I will use the marinade
again for sure on any kind of
poultry and I might even try it on a
pork tenderloin. Hubby said all
flavors went together well. For
those of you who didn't bother with
the chicken you missed out big
time. Yummy.

wernerc from Long Island, NY /

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I wasn't especially impressed with this recipe. I agree with an earlier reviewer that it came out seeming boiled instead of roasted and the broiling portion didn't brown it to anything like the picture - simply dried it out a bit. I think next time I'll try a more traditional roasting method, leaving them whole and uncovered, with much less broth, and probably on a roasting rack. The combination of herbs was quite interesting and the juniper berries were a nice wintry touch for the holidays. The caramelized root vegetables were far superior to the hens.
If I made this again, I would definitely thicken the sauce a bit with a little flour as well.

girloftars /

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This rating is just for the veggies. I didn't make the hen or sauce. The veggies were amazing. They smell so deliciously sweet during cooking I had flashes of sweet potato casserole. It's the summer but cooking this dish made me feel like it was winter. Before adding the garlic and thyme at the end I sampled the recipe and loved it so much I didn't want to add anything else. I'll add some to my leftovers tomorrow and I'm sure it will taste great, but just wanted to say that it was great without too.